177,000 voters purged from New Mexico rolls

Saturday

Aug 11, 2012 at 12:02 PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A voting rights activist and the wife of a Democratic state representative are among more than 177,000 New Mexico voters whose status has been deemed inactive, raising questions about the criteria being used as the state begins a cleanup of voter rolls three months before the presidential election.

Diane Wood, voting rights director for Common Cause New Mexico, said she was surprised to receive a postcard this week asking her to verify her voting status in order to remain active. She said she has voted in every election since 1971.

State Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said his wife got the same mailing, even though she is a regular voter.

Failure to return the card won't get anyone knocked off the rolls before 2014. Still, Wood said she was concerned the cards could confuse voters and discourage some from going to the polls in November.

Egolf called the action an outrageous assault on "one of the most fundamental constitutional rights."

"I am really afraid and personally concerned that this is just part of the national trend that Republicans are hell-bent to remove as many people from the rolls as possible," he said. "It seems that (Secretary of State) Dianna Duran is following the Republican playbook and pushing the limit as far as she can."

Duran said she did not choose to start the process this close to the November general election, but her office was threatened with a lawsuit by the Justice Department because her predecessor failed in 2007 and 2009 to purge non-residents and non-voters from the voter rolls as required by federal and state law.

"We didn't do this before the general election because we wanted to," she said. "We are doing this because I have to follow the law, nothing more, nothing less."

She said the mailing, which went to nearly 178,000 people, or about 14 percent of state voters, is so large because she had to send a card to any voter who has had an election mailing from a country clerk returned as undeliverable since 2005.

Wood said she has lived at her current address since 2006. Egolf said his wife has been registered at their address since 2005 or 2006.

Duran emphasized that the list and the mailing were conducted in close consultation with the Obama administration Justice Department and state Democratic Attorney General Gary King.

Duran said she will be working to educate voters who received the card that they can and should still vote.

"If they got a card now, and they don't send it back, all they have to do is go vote. Then you cannot be purged and are returned to active status," she said.

Still, David Thomson, a lawyer for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, said he was concerned about the downside of such a mass mailing.

"If you get it, you could think one of two things: Ok, here's another thing I have to do, when I am already taking time from work to go vote," he said. "Or it looks like I'm not eligible to vote."

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